It’s official, DC. Spring is here. Warm weather has arrived. The ice storms are gone, our spirits have been lifted, and our minds are thinking of lifting spirits (aka “drinking heavily”). There are two windows of time in this city when the weather is perfect, neither bitter cold or disgustingly hot and humid. It’s a time when you can leave your windows open at night, go outdoors without dreading it, and join your friends for dinner and drinks at one of our many patio bars (Local 16, 18th Street Lounge, Wonderland, etc). It’s also time for the beautiful people of the city to start packing themselves into Lauriol Plaza as if Corona and swirly margaritas were life necessities.

Most people either love or hate LP. I’m quite fond of it myself, partly because I think their food and margs rock, and partly because it takes me 5 minutes to walk there from my house. The biggest complaint I hear is, “Oh but the wait! You have to wait for hours to get a table!” Nonsense, poopy pants! If you’re a party of 8, sure. But if you’re 2-4 people, the most you’ll have to wait is 45 minutes, usually only 10-15. They key is getting there before 7:30, but if that’s too early for you, just hang out on the patio with your friends and a pitcher of margaritas and enjoy this weather while it lasts.

As far as the food goes, I highly recommend sticking with the basics. The fajitas, tacos, burritos, chimichangas, and enchiladas are all tasty treats. You may be tempted to get something fancy like lamb fajitas or crab enchiladas, but it’s your gamble, not mine.

So what say you, DC residents? Can you name a better Mexican food restaurant in town?

Photo by our very own Tom Bridge.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

“Hope you don’t need to use maps in our nation’s capital!” Those of you who regularly use Google Maps might have noticed that ever since late February, the addresses and directions may have been stumbling over most letter streets. Seems that a recent update of Google Maps’ address parser has broken addresses along streets with single-character names, so that it goes wild. A search for 15 E St NW, for example, gives you the generic location of 15th St NW, although if you search by name of the specific establishment at that address, in this case the Hotel George, the map seems to work fine. The Google Maps Help Group isn’t much help at all, and there hasn’t been any action on the bug for weeks now, so those of you entertaining Google Maps-using visitors to DC would do well to warn them of the bug, and avoid Google in favor of other map apps for now where the District is concerned.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Tables

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

One of my favorite places to take friends when they’re passing through town is the Boulevard Woodgrill. Now, full disclosure, I’m their web guy, and a friend of the management, but I’ve been a regular fixture there for about four years off and on. The food’s great, the prices are really reasonable, and the atmosphere is classy, but separate from the formality of downtown DC. On a nice Spring night, dinner on the sidewalk there is a small slice of heaven. When Managing Partner Ryan Duncan told me that he was opening up a new spot in Old Town Alexandria, I wondered if they could duplicate some of that feeling across town; turns out, they’ve done one better.

Overwood opens today, marking the fourth restaurant in the group, and bringing that stylish feel to Old Town’s antique brick. Overwood’s open interior and exposed brick and wood give the place a warm feeling. It’s not a new restaurant, it’s the same great place you’ve been coming to for years. You feel right at home as soon as you’re in the front door. Their wet bar features an incredible array of draft beers (including new-to-DC Bell’s, as well as old standby Victory’s HopDevil and Allagash White) and a great wine list.

The staff was still getting the kinks out on our visit to their Mock Service last Saturday night, but the kitchen seemed to be hitting on all cylinders, as chef Boubker Errami (formerly of Faccia Luna) produced some absolutely delicious food. I had the center-cut pork chops on potatoes with gingered black beans, and Tiff had a cut-with-a-fork lamb shank with mirepoix. Their new signature dessert, the Elvis Pie, is a big slice of a peanut butter/banana pie that has to be eaten to be believed. I hold no responsibility for any hip-shaking you may feel necessary after eating it, though.

Its location off King St, about two blocks from the Torpedo Factory makes Overwood feels like it’s already a part of the community, meshing well with the cute townhouses and offices that are part of Old Town. It feels like a neighborhood place, something homey and dependable, even though they’re just barely open. Be sure to check out their amazing panini sandwiches at lunch, or their Rockfish or Lamb Shank or Lasagna at dinner.

Overwood
220 North Lee Street
Alexandria VA
www.theoverwood.com

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I had lunch yesterday at Mai Thai at 6 King Street in Alexandria, right by the Torpedo Factory. Honestly, I was a little hesitant at first, knowing that it was nestled in a high-rent area and figuring that I could only get the priciest of meals there. How wrong I was!

For $21 my lunch companion and I each got delicious entrees and shared a dessert. Now, this may not seem like a complete bargain and more like a regular bill for such a meal, but the price was more than right. When you figure in cost per unit deliciousness (the ultimate restaurant bargain determining factor), Mai Thai offered one of the best deals around.

My drunken noodles with tofu was delightful, having a wonderfully intertwined mélange of basil, garlic and some sort of incredible brown sauce I don’t entirely know how to describe but have gotten better at reproducing. All I know is that I was belching up Thai goodness all afternoon and enjoying every minute of it. Although it was not as spicy as I prefer, it did have a little bite and was completely digestible, which was a great trade-off.

The other dish ordered was fried rice with chicken and shrimp, which was reportedly very good. I cannot comment firsthand on this one, as I do not eat meat, even in Thai restaurants. I am sure the shrimpy goodness was a blast of subtle exuberance and the chicken was as delicious as the day it was born. Or something like that. I don’t know how to describe chicken and shrimp anymore.

Our dessert was mango with sticky rice. This simple dessert really takes a deft hand to complete and it’s all in the sauce. Usually the sticky rice is cooked with coconut milk and sugar but at Mai Thai they do something a little different – they pour a coconut milk sauce over the sticky rice, which makes the dish even more interesting to behold. A very slight salt flavour in the sauce helped bring out the sweetness in the mango, making this most delicious of all fruits (with the possible exception of the durian) seem all that much more delicious.

In short, I highly recommend Mai Thai. On top of the incredible food, the servers were all friendly and helpful and made our visit enjoyable. It’s hard to pick a favorite Thai restaurant but Mai Thai is certainly up there.

What’s your favorite Thai place? I want to go try it!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I don’t want to get the reputation here as a Washington Post basher – when I moved here from Miami I was delighted to be somewhere with a paper superior to the one from my home town that I felt was somewhat trashy – but the Post’s page 5 placement of this story on radio system being deployed by the DOJ made me raise my eyebrows.

The story reveals that Justice has spent almost 2/3 of their allocation these past six years for this project to maintain their old system rather than making progress on the new one. DHS is setting out on their own to set up a system because they claim they can’t wait. The new system is currently 15 months behind schedule.

The article only makes passing mention of 9/11 as an issue here with the statement “The need to upgrade and unify emergency law enforcement communications has long been identified by emergency personnel as a major problem, one underscored by the confusion seen in the response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.” More accurately, there’s a strong belief that the state of the NYC radio systems was a major player in the number of deaths – particularly among the fire department – that happened that say.

As a resident of what is arguably the #1 terrorist target city in the nation, I’d like to see this system come together expediently… particularly since the target date – which is apparently already in danger of not being met – isn’t till 2021.

Am I being overly reactionary in thinking this should have been front-page news?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Mike Panetta is the DC Shadow Representive (not to be confused with Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton) and while I’m not sure adding an amendment is a “rare parliamentary procedure”, it does strike me that his point is fairly clear: Let’s get a vote held on the DC Voting Rights Act!

In specific, Shadow Rep Panetta would like you to call Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer to get them to get working on the DC Voting Rights Act. Specifically:

Can you please take a minute and make two phone calls to help with this effort? I need you to call both Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. Both have been champions on this issue and we need to thank them for their leadership in this fight. They also need to hear from people that this bill needs to brought back to the House floor this week before the upcoming recess.

Their phone numbers are below:

Speaker Pelosi: (202) 225-0100

Majority Leader Hoyer: (202) 225-3130

Please make the following points on your phone call:

* You are calling in regards to the DC Voting Rights Act
* You are very appreciative of their leadership on this issue
* You are urging the House leadership to bring the bill back to a floor vote this week.

Give ’em a call. It’s time for the District to get some representation. And no, we don’t mean the morons who claim they’re your reps. Better yet, come out to the DC Voting Rights Happy Hour and drink the vote.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Maria Simonsson’s display of fiber vessels called “Form Over Function” will be going off display after April 1st, so this is the last week you can go enjoy the works. The idea of fiber vessels may seem silly at first thought but seeing how real and functional they look, you might never guess that they would not hold water.

By the way, if you are rich enough to purchase such cool art, I recommend not trying to use these. They are beautiful and certainly fit the idea and form of vessels but when introduced to water or other liquids worthy of decanting, I suspect these would prove to be highly absorbent.

The installation, which looks at the form and function of various types of vessels, is on display at The Art League Gallery at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Old Town Alexandria. Gallery hours are 10-5 Monday-Saturday and 12-5 Sunday and the location is 105 N. Union Street in Alexandria.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I made my maiden voyage to the Arlington Cinema ‘n’ Drafthouse this weekend and was excited at the prospect of table service during the movie, and even more excited once I saw the menu. Unfortunately, the very swift delivery of my fountain-poured Coke product was the highlight of the dining experience.

I ordered “nachos deluxe,” which could have been a very nice meal of tasty nachos and all the fixings but instead was a small gathering of cheap movie house chips, melted Velveeta and some tiny dabs of sour cream and jalapeños and cheap salsa. It was a mushy mess with no fork to eat it with. Velveeta on my fingers has always been less of a problem than it seems like, but it was messy all the same.

My mother, who was in town for my birthday, had some chicken dish she said she couldn’t even taste (seriously) and my wife had the eggplant parmesan, which she said was somewhere between okay and good.

I had high hopes for this movie house but now am not sure I will return unless it is to simply watch a movie and have a few beers. Usually I give a restaurant two chances before ending the relationship but in this case I think I will break it off early. Three samples at once is good enough for me.

On the other hand, the Drafthouse has wine tastings, $1 movie admissions on Mondays and even monthly bus trips to Virginia wineries. Definitely go check it out but don’t arrive hungry unless you plan on filling up on beer and good movies.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I’m sitting in Starbucks – having been chased out of my home, my first choice for a comfortable place to work and drink coffee – and twenty minutes ago I was amazed at how many people come here to conduct business.

Now I am amazed that apparently nobody comes here to conduct legitimate business. Maybe its legit in a legal sense but it’s business I would be ashamed to tell my mom I was in.

Listen, if you’re reading this and you don’t know it already, ALL MULTI-LEVEL MARKETING SYSTEMS ARE SCAMS. They are essentially envelope stuffing systems with more complexity. They are pyramid schemes that manage to stay on the right side of the law through a baloney dodge of having a legitimate product line in parallel with the nonsense that happens on the layer that does the recruiting.

If you’re not sure you understand how these things work well enough to identify them and not fall for them, here’s the simple test: ANY ’employment’ scheme that (a) promises you huge money easy and quick and (2) wants YOU to pay THEM up front is certainly designed to make money… for the people selling that material. You, on the other hand, will be pushed to attend paid seminars or buy materials to “help” you better sell and add people beneath you.

In the case of the scheme I had to listen to (hey thieves – INSIDE voices, dudes, INSIDE voices – your mark is 2 feet from you, those of us across the room don’t need to hear you), recognize that someone who spends ten minutes telling you they “can’t spend forty-five minutes answering your every question” is full of bull. That “Informational Session” they want you to come to is just setting you up to talk to the more experienced closer.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Lawrence Small stepped down from his post atop the Smithsonian Institution today, amid furor over his extravaganceas the Senate had voted this past week to freeze the $17M increase in spending budgeted from Congress. Things were looking pretty rough for Small, and it’s good that he decided to find someone else to pay over $2,500 to have his chandelier cleaned.

I suppose that amount might feel more appropriate if that was a euphemism for something.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

One of Virginia Senator Jim Webb’s staffers was arrested today for trying to take a loaded firearm into the Capitol. Relax, relax, it looks like he wasn’t going to go all postal on someone, it looks more likely that the staffer was carrying the Senator’s gun, which was left loaded and inside his personal effects, unbeknownst to the aide. There’s a lot of guessing as to what really happened right now, but overall, it just looks like an embarassing faux pas, not something really important or sinister.

Recommence ignoring the Hill in 5…4…3…

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

If it weren’t for the tools available to us in the digital age that we live in, many forms of art would either be impossible or extremely difficult. It wasn’t long ago that people were forced to use film cameras (gasp!) as there was no alternative. You had to have dark room skills to get your photos to turn out just right, and if you messed up, well, it was all over.

In the modern world we have many software applications available to us to manipulate our digital photos, the most prominent being Photoshop (which is what I use). It’s really amazing what you can do with this piece of software. Straighten your image, bring out the sharpness of the details, blur your subject’s skin, quickly fix imperfections, enhance or change colors, fix lens distortion…it’s downright amazing. And if you mess up? Just undo baby. If only life had an undo button.

Flickr user Pamela Viola appears to be a master of Photoshop, creating images that are half photograph, half painting. My educated guess, based on some of the comments on her photos, is that she achieves this look by layering textures on top of her base images, giving them a weathered, painterly look, almost as if they were painted on canvas hundreds of years ago. I’d love to see how she accomplishes this look.

If you can’t afford Photoshop or CS2, definitely pick up a copy of Photoshop Elements or some other manipulation program. At a bare minimum you should be able to crop your images and adjust the contrast and color. You’ll be amazed at how an ordinary photograph can turn into something spectacular.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

The Hoyas once again snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, beating UNC in the quarterfinals to advance to the Final Four. This is the second year in a row that the greater DC area has had a team in the finals of the big dance, and this weekend’s matchup with the Buckeyes should be one to remember.

One of the things, in watching Sportscenter at lunch today, is that Dick Vitale does not look, well, vital. He’s been the central media figure of March Madness for years and years, and it’s a bit sad to see him look so old and try to pull off his usual fervor.

That said, this weekend’s games in Atlanta are the big deal. Expect this town to go absolutely crazy when the Hoyas win.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Dear Stan Kasten & The Lerners.

This city has sacrificed its finances, its land, its honor and its pride in order to get MLB to have a baseball team here in DC. This city, on behalf of the fans, have done things that even rock-band groupies wouldn’t do. The very least that you can do is get us our fracking tickets in a reasonable fashion. As it stands, opening night is a week hence, and I still don’t have my 20 game ticketbook, and I understand, that I’m not alone.

I remember growing up when the A’s tickets would come in early March. It was a great day. We’d take the packs of tickets out of the envelopes and check all the games. They’d then go in the lefthand drawer of the credenza til we’d get them out before driving into Oakland.

All through Spring Training, we’d know the tickets were in the drawer. It was the best feeling ever. As it is, I know we have our opening day tickets (us 20 game plan folks don’t get them as part of the plan and have to buy them.) but I’ve been waiting to get our ticket books from Adam before going out to Reston to get them. That day just keeps getting later and later and there’s no time to stare at the tickets with rapt joy before the season starts.

As it currently stands, your inattention to detail has gone farther than it ever should. It’s bad enough that our team may only win 50 games this year, but to further alienate your fans in this city is a recipe for disaster that you cannot afford. You need your season ticket holders as much as they need you. Nothing will make that more clear than seeing RFK half-empty on opening day. Don’t take us for granted, Mr. Kasten and Mr. Lerner. That would be unwise.

Regards from the 400 level,

Tom Bridge

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

The Airbus A380 is visiting Dulles, and will be doing a demo flight today (Monday, March 26). Don’t expect to be able to fly with it, or visit the aircraft to see its luxurious insides, or even get a good chance to view it from the terminals, on the ground or above it. IAD’s A380 update tells us that the plane will generally be out of reach of the thronging masses:

However, the organizers of this event have not made arrangements for the general public to view the aircraft. Public areas of the airport do not offer a good view of the A380 when it is parked on the airfield. Views of the take-off and landing of the demonstration flight from public areas of the airport are also limited due to the configuration of the airfield. Dulles Airport will be operating normally throughout this event. If you come to the airport, please be mindful of passengers who will be traveling those days. Do not park in unauthorized areas, which will be patrolled by Airports Authority Police.

Any planespotters who manage to snap decent — or even indecent — shots of the superjumbo at Dulles, please do let us know in the comments, and add them to the DC Metroblogging Group. This is one planefan who’ll be waiting for those photos with baited breath. (Props go to Vidiot for his photos of the A380 visiting JFK Airport in New York.)

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Why work to create some cool links and content for you when I can link to this Metafilter post and have a beer instead? Virginia has put together a great post there with links about the architect behind the US Capitol, the capitol itself, the art and architecture thereof and more. If you need a little weekend linkage go check it out.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

I hate early morning flights. I would much rather fly late or overnight and have a full first day wherever I am going.

Seems I am in the minority of those who travel out of National airport on the weekend.

Where my usual 10pm to 12am departures are half empty, this morning’s flight to DFW is packed to the wingtips with passengers.

So my fellow Washingtonians, if you are headed to Austin for the weekend + business to Wednesday do you depart Friday night or Saturday morning?

And would a work-paid hotel from Saturday onwards change your mind?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

discourtesy via WaPo

While writing yesterday’s post about the Jonathan Coulton show today I found that he’d been written up in the May 22nd edition of Express, WaPo’s freebie ripoff of USA Today’s in-depth reporting. I could read the article itself on page 53 of the PDF edition but when I went to copy the address for Ram’s Head…. nothing.

When some old cruft pasted into the edit window instead of what I wanted I just assumed I’d failed to press CONTROL-C correctly and went back to the other window to do it again. And discovered that Express apparently releases their PDFs with copy functionality disabled. It’ll let you highlight something – just to get your hopes up, I guess – but no copy.

Really? Your various puff-pieces in your giveaway paper are so precious that I need to be prevented from copying a paragraph? Admittedly, in the realm of difficulties in my life having to re-type that address into the google maps bar isn’t such a trial, but c’mon guys – what’s gained by making my life more difficult? The entirety of the WaPo daily can be copied from the web. Open up your PDFs.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

With just 2.5 seconds to go, Jeff Green launched an off-balance shot that put the Hoyas over the top tonight, beating Vandy 66-65 in regulation. Next up is the winner of the USC/UNC game, and a spot in the Final Four. Do the Hoyas have what it takes to go all the way? My wrecked bracket sure hopes so, or my aunt will mercilessly mock me for years to come.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

What would downtown DC egress be like if it were not for CVS? Every Friday until it is again too cold, the delivery truck will block 15th Street and block in parked cars.

The delivery men will then use the sidewalk, street, and the whole corner to sort their shipment. If they gave out free samples or at least kept it contained I would not mind.

Alas it is not so. It is spring and CVS is yet again taking over the K Street corner as the Downtown Helper looks on with indifference.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs